Method of making a facing for a dental restoration, facing for a dental restoration, and method of making a dental restoration

1. A method of making a dental restoration precursor, comprising the step of:

providing a facing precursor from which a facing is obtainable,

providing a blank of an open-celled, pre-sintered material,

forming an open-celled, pre-sintered facing precursor from the blank, and

mating the open-celled, pre-sintered facing precursor with a closed-celled, sintered frame to form a dental restoration precursor.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of

sintering the pre-sintered facing precursor to form the facing.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the facing precursor has a first material density and the facing has a second material density, wherein the second material density is higher than the first material density.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second material density is in a range of 2 g/cm 3 to 2.7 g/cm 3 , and the first material density is in a range of 30% to 92% of the second material density.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 , and 2 - 4 , wherein the facing comprises a glass ceramic material.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 , and 2 - 4 , wherein the facing precursor is proportionally enlarged relative to the facing by a magnification factor of between 1.12 to 1.17.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein sintering results in the facing precursor shrinking proportionally.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing forming the facing precursor from the blank includes machining.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein machining includes one or both selected from grinding and milling.

10. The method of claim 9 , comprising the steps of:

forming an exterior surface of the facing precursor based on a virtual model of an exterior surface of the dental restoration; and

forming an interior surface of the facing precursor based on a virtual model of an exterior surface of a frame.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of modeling the exterior surface of the dental restoration on a CAD system.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein forming of the exterior surface of the facing precursor includes at least one procedure selected from scanning a patient's tooth, scanning a temporary restoration, and scanning a model of a patient's tooth.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of heating the dental restoration precursor and thereby sintering at least the facing precursor.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein heating of the dental restoration precursor fuses a surface of the facing to a surface of the frame.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of at least partially glazing the facing.

16. Dental restoration precursor, comprising a frame and a facing prepared according to the method of claim 1 .

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing a pre-manufactured facing precursor comprises the step of:

controlling a CNC machine based on data related to the shape of the facing precursor which are obtained from a CAD system, wherein the facing precursor is proportionally enlarged with respect to the facing.

18. A method of making a dental restoration precursor, comprising the step of:

providing a facing precursor from which a facing is obtainable,

providing a blank of an open-celled, pre-sintered material,

forming an open-celled, pre-sintered facing precursor from the blank, and

providing a closed-celled, sintered frame,

providing a ceramic slurry comprising a powdery glass ceramic material mixed with water, and

mating the open-celled, pre-sintered facing precursor and the closed-celled, sintered frame with the ceramic slurry arranged between mated surfaces of the frame and the facing precursor to form a dental restoration precursor.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising the step of

sintering the pre-sintered facing precursor to form the facing and fuse the facing to the frame.